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Dark Knight Returns Director Not Returning For Gotham By Gaslight

By Russ Burlingame - July 13, 2017

Jay Oliva, one of the most consistent contributors to both Warner Bros.'s DC Universe animated features and the company's live-action DC Extended Universe films, will not direct the forthcoming Batman: Gotham By Gaslight movie.

When asked by a fan on Twitter, Oliva -- who directed, among others, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns -- said that he had not been invited back for Gotham By Gaslight.

Besides directing animated movies, Oliva -- who does storyboard and concept art for live-action movies, urged fans not to feel too bad for him, as he has spent the time since directing Justice League Dark on projects like Wonder Woman, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, and Justice League.

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight was originally released by DC Comics in 1989. The story was written by Brian Augustyn, drawn by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, and inked by P. Craig Russell. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight reimagines Batman as a Victorian era vigilante-detective investigating the serial killer Jack the Ripper.

In an age of mystery and superstition, how would the people of Gotham react to a weird creature of the night, a bat-garbed vigilante feared by the guilty and the innocent alike? The very first Elseworlds tale re-imagines the Dark Knight detective in Victorian times and pits him against the infamous murderer Jack the Ripper.

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight was popular enough to spawn a sequel, Master of the Future, written by Augustyn and drawn by Eduardo Barreto. Its greater legacy was the Elseworlds concept. Though Gotham by Gaslight was not originally called an Elseworlds story, it led to a long line of similar reimaginings of DC Comics characters and their universe that would eventually be added to the DC Comics multiverse. These stories were labeled as Elseworlds tales, a label retroactively added to Gotham by Gaslight in later printings.

For a sneak peek at the Batman: Gotham by Gaslight animated movie, check out the home media release of Batman and Harley Quinn on August 29, 2017.